Rumours: WotC Announcement Today; Insider Email Reveals Plans

There's a couple of rumours going round today. I cannot verify either, but I'm reporting them as most of the recent OGL rumours have proven true.

First -- it is rumoured that today at 3pm ET Wizards of the Coast will make some kind of video statement about the current Open Game License situation. This rumour came from the folks at Roll For Combat who were the first to break the draft OGL scoop.

[[UPDATE -- This didn't happen!]]

Second -- an email has been circulating from an anonymous WotC insider. Again, I must reiterate I cannot myself verify this, so read this with that in mind, but the email says:

Hi,

I'm an employee at WotC currently working on D&Dbeyond (DDB) and with D&D business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.

I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

-They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.
-Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line.
-Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.
-They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through.

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn't take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.

I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.

Hope your day goes well,

P.S. I will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders.

If both rumours are true, I guess at 3pm ET today we'll find that out.

 

[darjr]

Oof!

 

[Scribe]

I come out of meetings and I'm not greeted with a burning dumpster?!

 

[Charlaquin]

Nevermind

 

[Mercurius]

Only because we ALL hate this lol.

4E/PF1 was a problem because it SPLIT people. And you can't just blame 4E for that lol, because it takes two to tango. The problem was that a bunch of people liked one more than the other.

There's no huge split here. There are a few people who really don't want to give up on liking WotC/D&D, and some people who are certain nothing bad will happen, but even those people tend to agree if this does go through as written, it'll be very bad.

Yeah, it is actually kind of nice to a feel a sense of unity among the community. But, if Lisa Codega and this email are correct, it might not matter. WotC is investing in casual fans and the future, and perhaps the likelihood that enough long-time players will just suck it up and/or rationalize it as not bad enough to quit buying product.

My guess is that WotC will do or say something that seems like they're walking it back a bit, but then find a way to do what they plan on anyway, just in a subtler and/or more gradual manner. Meaning, they'll play it like politicians do (and my ex-wife, lol).

 

[overgeeked]

Oof!

It's almost like it's a real-world evil that should be fought.

 

[Yaarel]

Considering that even if they rolled back 100% and ammended the current OGL to be super duper irrevocable forever the trust is irretrievably broken. So damn the torpedoes, you know? The damage is already done.

We'll just have to make our own non corporate d&d now.

It is true I will never trust Hasbro-WotC (barring extraordinary repentance).

But.

Making an OGL that is "super duper irrevocable" means, I will continue to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Without that OGL, I will no longer support D&D, and perhaps actively discourage others from it.

I will try find an appealing RPG that
• has a strong OGL (allowing both content modification and selling of Open Content and protection of Product Identity),
• and hopefully already has Open Content that I happen to like for my playstyle.

 

[Staffan]

I come out of meetings and I'm not greeted with a burning dumpster?!

Here:

 

[Zaukrie]

Yeah, it is actually kind of nice to a feel a sense of unity among the community. But, if Lisa Codega and this email are correct, it might not matter. WotC is investing in casual fans and the future, and perhaps the likelihood that enough long-time players will just suck it up and/or rationalize it as not bad enough to quit buying product.

My guess is that WotC will do or say something that seems like they're walking it back a bit, but then find a way to do what they plan on anyway, just in a subtler and/or more gradual manner. Meaning, they'll play it like politicians do (and my ex-wife, lol).

It's it rationalizing anymore than buying phones made in China? Buying food picked by migrant workers? Buying products from other big companies that put other companies out of business? WotC is wrong here, 100%. But that hardly requires people not to support them. It's an ethical question, not moral one. IMO

 

[Osgood]

My guess is that WotC will do or say something that seems like they're walking it back a bit, but then find a way to do what they plan on anyway, just in a subtler and/or more gradual manner. Meaning, they'll play it like politicians do (and my ex-wife, lol).

The benefit to living in a world where all that matters is short term gains is that in the meanwhile, those who made the stockholders lose money, even for a few months, may still pay a price. The release of One D&D, when the profits may negate any lose of subs now, is quite a few quarters away...

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, it is actually kind of nice to a feel a sense of unity among the community.

It really is.

But, if Lisa Codega and this email are correct, it might not matter. WotC is investing in casual fans and the future, and perhaps the likelihood that enough long-time players will just suck it up and/or rationalize it as not bad enough to quit buying product.

Unfortunately, yeah. It's likely to happen.

My guess is that WotC will do or say something that seems like they're walking it back a bit, but then find a way to do what they plan on anyway, just in a subtler and/or more gradual manner. Meaning, they'll play it like politicians do (and my ex-wife, lol).

Yeah, like when Chaosium jumped into NFTs. After fan outrage the sort of...maybe...walked it back. But they left it vague. So most people just assumed it was all good and moved on.